University of Virginia Library

Letters To The Editor

Sports Editors Defended
On Gibson Controversy

This letter is written in reference
to the "106 Athletes' Letter." The
Cavalier Daily, March 20, 1969. I
would like to thank the many
members of the football and
lacrosse teams (and whoever else I
missed) for their interest in what
has transpired in the Athletic
Department these last few weeks. I
think this letter shows that at the
very least, you have the better
interests of the University in mind.
But I also think that unfortunately
your efforts were misdirected in
this case.

We all know that you play under
the very capable coaching staffs of
Mr. Blackburn and Mr. Beardmore,
but the issue to which your letter is
addressed has nothing to do with
them but with the basketball team
and Mr. Gibson. It is my opinion
therefore that your letter has very
little significance other than some
dis-interested parties expressing
their views on a given subject.

I also think that your charges
against the sports editors of the
newspaper are unnecessarily malicious,
and totally unfounded for
these reasons among others.

1) Unless I have overlooked
some names, no current member of
the varsity basketball team has
signed your letter and I think that
this alone speaks for itself.

2) There has been no relevant
comment or rebuttal by the Athletic
Department to any of the
charges submitted by Mr. McKean.
Is this silence an admission of guilt?

3) Your charge that these
writers have "at no time and in no
way represented majority opinion'
seems to lack validity since for one
reason, no other letters have been
written by interested alumni, students,
members of the athletic
staff, etc. asking for a public
apology from the editors. In fact,
the only letters written to The
Cavalier Daily concerning this issue
either completely agreed with the
editors or called for Mr. Gibson's
resignation on other grounds.

4) In regard to your charge or
biasedness on the part of the sports
editors, why should they be biased?
Did you not take into consideration
the fact that they realized the
possible consequence of acute criticism
when they chose to publish
these articles. Surely it would have
been much easier for them to extol
the virtues of Virginia's most
"powerful" basketball team in
many years, than to stick their neck
out as they chose to do.

In conclusion, I think you owe
both Mr. McKean and Mr. Cullen a
public apology as well as your
complete gratitude because it is
people like them who are looking
out for your best interests, by
trying to keep you from having to
play your sports under the oppressive
conditions like those which the
current basketball coach seems to
have installed.

Psychological War

My working address, College
Park, Maryland is besieged this
semester by a new drive out of New
York to corrupt the South into the
British islands' fashion of liberal
orientation. It is the start of a
second Civil War, a psychological
one, aimed at Dixie conservatives,
and is characterized by Communistic
Machiavellianism. Photographs
and stories about nude performers
and runners filthily baste the honor
of our campus publications, a dance
band named the "Gross National
Product" has been given the nod or
the wink, what's the difference, by
our student government leaders
after their succumbings to various
bribes and inducements, it appears,
and desegregation of our cheerleading
corps is demanded now despite
our having only the most negligible
proportion of students of the
careless, bellicose race. The words,
or wanderings, if I may coin a term
perhaps, of our interim Governor,
Marvin Mandel, smack of a belligerency
that will stifle any attempts
to right these wrongs.

If the University of Maryland
falls into Northern, arch liberal
hands, I believe that the University
of Virginia will become their, next,
aiming point. I fight them these
days, and I am not the only one
here. As the Holy Spirit vindicates,
we can repulse them, but now is
when we need small encouragements
and stouthearted assistance
from our, Confederate neighbors
just like Boston once asked from its
sister states where Massachusetts
saw the first battles of the First
Revolutionary War. The War Between
the States, I feel, was just the
homeland's, exceptionally noble
protest of Lincoln's refusal to let
independent Americans go their
way, which was symbolized by his
outrageous decision to hold two,
famous forts in our sector, you
know, and which was only matched
in terrorism by the martial law,
torture rack with which he bloodily
forced Maryland to submit to his
devious angers. Have a measure of
confidence in Marylanders today,
for although we could be conquered
by force, we like you
cannot be conquered by mere
political pressure, no matter how
large the supposed omnipotence of
the University of Maryland's,
bought-and-paid for minority may
be claimed to be, he "recapitulated"
vote of 43% for Wallace in
our primaries of 1964 will not be
forgotten here and the Agnew-Mandel
era of psychological suppression
not for long accepted.

I suggest that Atlantic Coast
Conference member colleges be
asked to prominently display each
other's newspapers in their campus
libraries, and until we can implement
such a Committee-of-Correspondence
kind of plan, I only ask
that you, University of Virginians
as representatives of Virginia, the
state of Presidents, try to support
our, University of Maryland, conservative
efforts in your, campus
newspaper, to which I enclose the
requirements for my entry as your
subscriber.